He can’t hit the high notes anymore, but key GWS back Nick Haynes has no issues with Marcus Bontempelli despite the throat injury he copped from the Western Bulldogs star.
Haynes suffered a fractured larynx from a late bump from Bontempelli in round 22, a blow that did not culminate in a ban by the AFL tribunal.
The intercept marking specialist missed one game but recovered in time to play in last Saturday’s rematch with the Bulldogs, an elimination final in Sydney won handsomely by the Giants.
“I played with him forward for a little bit, we had a little chuckle and a little bit of banter but all in good heart and good fun,” Haynes said.
“He’s a good fella.”
Haynes confirmed Bontempelli, who was fined $2000 for rough conduct, messaged him a few days after the incident to check on his health.
“I appreciated the message and just sent back, ‘getting better’. He wanted me to get out there and play against the Doggies, which I did,” he said.
“You want to see the good players out there, so it was good to see him out there playing as well.”
Bontempelli was still on the end of some tough treatment from GWS last weekend, with both Toby Greene and Harry Himmelberg charged and fined for serious misconduct and striking respectively for incidents involving the Bulldogs champion.
Haynes was adamant it hadn’t been a case of the Giants looking for a square-up after what happened to him.
‘No, I think we wanted as a whole footy team to be physical. It’s finals footy, loser goes home,” he said.
“We think we play our best footy when we play a tough brand and we wanted to put that on the whole Bulldogs team, not just one player.”
Haynes still had some croakiness in his voice but was almost back to full noise.
“It’s just that high note I can’t hit, I was trying to sing the song on the weekend and I couldn’t gusto it out,” he joked.
Haynes said eating and communicating had been difficult in the immediate aftermath of the blow.
“That night I tried to just be stubborn and try to eat some chips with fried chicken but that wasn’t going down well,” he said.
“I couldn’t really swallow food too well and obviously I couldn’t talk much.
“It was a pretty weird feeling not being able to talk for the first couple of days.”
